


Seeking Warmth

by frankcastlesfemfeb (Deathtouch)



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Homeless, Cold Weather, F/F, Mentions of Masturbation, Prostitution, Sad, Sex Worker AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 11:47:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7933441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathtouch/pseuds/frankcastlesfemfeb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Femfeb 2016 | Drabble<br/><i>anonymous asked:</i> for femfeb i was hoping you would write me a emma frost/rachel summers au where they aren't mutants or x-men - it isn't a popular pairing i hope that doesn't matter? - i was thinking hookerfic [fanlore (.) org / wiki / hookerfic] i hope you can write this for me. thanks in advance!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeking Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd! all mistakes are my own.

Rachel had pulled her arms out of her sleeves and clutched at her own chest under her hoodie. She was trying to conserve warmth. The hood was pulled up around her head, but she swore she felt chill biting at the back of her neck.   
  
She had her knees pulled in and she was hiding her face behind them. It was so cold. Her back was to the building but wind still seemed to creep up on her. There was a gap where the hem of her hoodie met the waistband of her pants and the only thing that kept her skin from being exposed was a threadbare t-shirt.   
  
She would buy a jacket, a warm winter jacket. She shivered, teeth chattering. There was a second hand store not far from here. It was an hours walk to get to it, and another hour back, but maybe walking would keep her from feeling so cold.   
  
Maybe she should just let herself freeze to death. That might not be so bad. Rachel thought she remembered hearing that people start to feel warm in the end when they die of the cold. She would give anything to be warm in that moment.   
  
She was more aware than ever of the twenty dollars in her pocket. Emma had watched her rub one out that morning, dressed in a warm white fur coat while Rachel’s freezing fingers had made it impossible to enjoy touching herself. She could use the money to buy a coat. Then she’d be okay.    
  
Rachel thought she felt the brush of fingers against her hood and she jerked her head up. In the dark she saw huge clumped-together snowflakes flittering down between the buildings of the alley she slept in. Her shoulders and pants were covered with white. When she shook her head, wet snow flew off. Melting snow started to seep into the fabric of her clothes, making her already cold skin even colder. She put her face back into her knees, hiding from the wind. She felt like screaming. She didn’t want to be cold anymore.   
  


* * *

Every time Rachel thought she was shit out of luck, something lucky ended up happening after all. She wouldn’t typically refer to a visit from Emma as lucky, but in this case it was. The 2016 White Acadia Denali pulled up like valet were pulling her car around for her. The back door on the passenger side opened and Emma Frost stepped out with a determined look on her face. 

  
“You’re all wet.” Emma said all too pleasantly as she approached Rachel.   
  
It had gotten up to forty six degrees in the afternoon and a lot of the snow had melted. It seemed to be dripping from everywhere. Rachel’s clothes were definitely damp, but it was hard for her to tell; a lot of her skin had gone numb.   
  
Emma moved to crouch down in front of her. She pressed her lips together in something that awkwardly mimicked a smile, but also just sort of looked smug. Rachel tried not to look at her face, and looked at the toe of Emma’s white stiletto boots instead.   
  
Rachel found herself squinting at how bright everything was. The sun seemed to be illuminating the half melted snow all around them. It had all fallen so recently the city hadn’t managed to make it dirty black-and-grey yet. Soon, Rachel thought.   
  
“Come with me. I’m taking you to get food.” Emma told her.   
  
Rachel thought about it. She couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten. All the places to get food around here usually kicked her out when she came in. They couldn’t tell her apart from any of the other homeless that made a mess in the bathroom or hassled customers for money. She didn’t blame them for telling her to fuck off, but sometimes she wished she had somewhere warm to go and sit for an hour. She wondered if it was worth Emma’s company to go with her.   
  
“I told you, I don’t fuck.” Rachel’s jaw was tight, stiff from chattering all night.   
  
“I don’t want to fuck you, I want to buy you food.”   
  
“Food costs money. You’ll want something in return.” Rachel shook her head. She wasn’t biting.   
  
“Yes.” Emma flashed perfect teeth at her. “For you not to die. I quite like watching you touch yourself, and I’d miss the show if you were gone.”   
  
Rachel closed her eyes, wishing Emma away. She thought about how cold he’d been last night, and how little sleep she’d gotten. She thought about how for weeks and weeks all she’d wanted was to be warm.   
  
Somehow she found the strength to push herself up. Her muscles were stiff and sore and tight all over. She stuffed her arms back into her sleeves, wincing to find the fabric frozen and stiff. She squinted out at the brightness again and nodded. “Fine.”  
  
Emma graciously offered the crook of her arm, but Rachel flat out ignored her. She took slow, deliberate steps towards the car, snow crunching under her sneakers with each step. The door handle was iced over, but her fingers were too numb to notice any difference as she pulled it open.   
  
The heat from inside the car blasted her face and made breathing hard. Her lungs weren’t ready for such a temperature change. She climbed in regardless. The back seat was a bench seat and she shoved as far into the corner as possible to ensure that Emma wouldn’t end up touching her. Rachel took shallow breaths. Her face and fingers started tingling.   
  
Emma climbed in after her, and called out in a foreign tongue to the driver. They pulled away from the alley and Rachel tried not to look back at it sadly. She tipped her head, leaning it on the cold window. She closed his eyes. “Somewhere with people. Take me somewhere with people. I don’t want to be alone with you.”   
  
The warmth enveloped her entirely like an embrace. She found herself coughing intermittently. Her head felt like it was full of cotton. If Emma was talking, Rachel wasn’t listening. She kept her eyes closed and hoped she would drift off to sleep. Every time she got close to dozing an itch in her lungs had her wheezing low and then coughing again. She didn’t know where they were going and she didn’t care.   
  
“Rachel,” Emma shook her shoulder gently.   
  
Rachel bolted awake, shoving Emma’s hand away. She ended up on the plastic arm rest, retreating against the interior of the car in her haste to get away. She blinked around, trying to understand where she was. She remembered what the ugly white Denali looked like on the outside and quickly put together that this was what it looked like from the inside. She glanced around, eyes darting frantically from window to window. She had no idea where they were.   
  
“Where the hell did you take me?”  
  
“Somewhere with lots of people.” Emma said pleasantly, and she opened the car door to climb out. Cold blasted in, and Rachel hated the way she found it familiar. Her face and fingers were burning, having thawed out from the cold. The world outside was brighter than the tinted Denali windows and she found herself squinting again. Still, she scooched towards the door and clambered out of the car.   
  
If she wasn’t mistaken they were a couple blocks from Times Square. The Denali was idling in front of a Starbucks. It wasn’t exactly Rachel’s first choice, but it did look busy. She had to find her footing, still unsteady on her feet from being in the cold for so long. She walked slowly towards the coffee shop, and was annoyed when Emma surpassed her to open the door for her. Rachel went through anyway, surprised by how delicious the coffee smelled inside. She didn’t even like coffee that much.   
  
“Sit down, I’ll order for you.” Emma told her, nodding towards a nearby table just large enough for two people.  
  
Rachel didn’t like the sound of that, but went to sit anyway. She folded his arms on the table and laid her head down, frowning as he realized how damp her hoodie really was. She still felt like coughing, and she was worried she might have gotten frost bite. Her fingers weren’t blue or anything, but they were still tingling painfully. She pretended she wasn’t feeling any of it.   
  
She could hear the soft murmur of conversation, and the voice of the barista taking orders. There was gentle music playing, piped in through the speakers, but she couldn’t distinguish it from all the other noises. The blender buzzed on and off.   
  
She didn’t want to fall asleep like she had in the car, but she was grateful for the comfort. There was a long line that kept Emma busy for a while. Rachel was glad to lay her head down somewhere in the meantime. She could have spent hours just like that.  
  
Eventually something tapped the table and she sat up. Rachel looked out with bleary eyes to see a warm cup of coffee sitting in front of her. Emma set down a papery bag with food in it too. Rachel’s stomach hurt suddenly. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate.   
  
“I lied.” Emma told her.   
  
Rachel didn’t know what that meant. She reached out for the paper sleeve and turned it to face her. There was some kind of sandwich inside. It didn’t look very appetizing. She picked up the coffee cup instead. It was warm in his fingers.  
  
“I do want to fuck you.” Emma continued.   
  
Rachel wondered how long it would take her to walk back to the alley. She wondered if that second hand store was easier to get to from Times Square or if it was further out of the way now. Maybe she could hop over the turnstiles and catch the subway, or just spend some time in the MTA station.   
  
She didn’t wonder why some gorgeous girl with expensive taste like Emma Frost was interested in her. Rachel had long since stopped wondering that. Some johns liked her for her red hair, or the scars on her face. It didn’t matter. They watched, they paid, and they didn’t touch her. That was just the way of things.   
  
She didn’t know why Emma was trying to shake things up now, talking about fucking like it was ever going to happen. “I don’t fuck.” Rachel reminded her. They’d been over this before.   
  
Someone in line gave them a curious glance, but Rachel didn’t care who overhead them. She was a sex worker, so what.  
  
“I know before I offered you money, and you didn’t like that. This time I’m offering you a place to stay.”   
  
Rachel laughed, but it sounded kind of hollow even to her own ears. “You want me to live with you?” Yeah fucking right.   
  
“No, no.” Emma quelled that thought with a swift hand motion that for some reason made Rachel flinch. “I bought a place for you. Rented, actually.”   
  
“Well that was a bit premature.”   
  
“Come see it.” Emma implored her with those big blue eyes, boring into her and asking for more than Rachel wanted to give.   
  
She thought about how warm it was in the coffee shop. She didn’t want to go back outside. Ever. She knew this was going to happen. That was why she slept outside, and not in some shelter. If she started seeking warmth, she wouldn’t be able to go back out into the cold again.   
  
She really did need a place to stay.   
  
She felt suddenly very sad.   
  
Emma Frost of all people had managed to warm up to her after all…

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!  
> feel free to comment here or chat me up on tumblr http://frankcastles.tumblr.com/ask  
> if you have any marvel femslash suggestions, please keep me in mind next february! :)


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